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I’d like to use this space to let people share their responses, and take inspiration from each other. What’s your vision? Tell the new administration about your longing for justice for both women and their children, about your work toward a consistent life ethic, about the steps you expect them to take toward their stated goal of abortion reduction — and tell us too.

4 thoughts on “change.gov”

As a visitor to this site, I would encourage you (if you haven’t already) to purchase a copy of The Liberal Case Against Abortion. Carol Crossed of Democrats For Life wrote the foreword. The book really is aimed at liberals, to convince them to oppose abortion on secular, human rights grounds.

Like all other Democrats, I am inspired by Obama. And it was encouraging to hear him talk about finding common ground on abortion. But actions speak louder than words. I was saying on liberal blogs like AlterNet and Salon.com a few months ago that Obama should have picked a pro-life Democrat as his running mate. (Michael Dukakis did this back in 1988.) Polls have found up to 40 percent of Democrats opposed to abortion, yet these rank and file Democrats are ignored not just by the mainstream media, but by the Democratic Party leadership as well. Joe Biden is a good man, and I’m sure he’ll make a good Vice President, but if Obama were really serious about working with pro-lifers in his own Party (what to speak of reaching across the aisle and working with Republicans!) to reduce the number of abortions, he would have picked a pro-life Democrat as a running mate.

As a pro-life progressive, I’m uncomfortable with the notion that we have to deny rights to the most vulnerable among us in the name of a pluralistic society. If a wave of religious fundamentalism swept America, and crosses were burned, books were banned, gays were bashed, etc., yet the public was told that whether or not these minorities have any rights is a subjective religious belief–a matter of choice!–no one on the Left would take it seriously. The 2008 Democratic Party Platform is more radically pro-abortion than the 2004 Platform, as Bill Clinton’s “safe, legal and rare” phrase was removed; the word “rare” deemed too judgemental. And Obama has said that his first duty as president would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), which would overturn all existing statutes regulating abortion throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy. I disagree with the pro-life strategy of packing the courts with conservatives in the hopes of eventually overturning Roe v. Wade, but Obama is being just as dogmatic as conservatives by insisting that he will only appoint justices who believe in Roe, i.e., in calling for a litmus test.

Having said all that, I think we need to educate our fellow liberals and get them to see abortion as a secular human rights issue. Again, I would encourage you (if you haven’t already) to purchase a copy of The Liberal Case Against Abortion.

Please receive my heartfelt congratulations for your recent election.
I am delighted to have you in the Oval Office and send all of my
blessings for your coming term.

As a woman and a pro-life progressive, I am troubled by your
unwavering support for the “Freedom of Choice Act,” or FOCA. FOCA
strips us of many basic, commonsense protections that the majority of
Americans support, including parental consent and protecting women’s
offspring from being killed while halfway outside of the womb. I have
utmost respect for the Democratic Party’s recently avowed commitment
to paving the way for a woman’s choice to have a baby. But FOCA
simply goes too far. Normally, I look to the Democratic Party to
ensure basic safeguards and sensible regulations on goods and
services. FOCA does just the opposite by granting to abortion doctors
unfettered power with no transparency or accountability.

I have such high hopes for your historic presidency, Senator Obama,
and I beg you to reconsider your position on this damaging piece of
legislation. Thank you for your consideration. I would greatly
appreciate a reply to this message.

Congratulations on your historic victory. Your election gives me great hope that America might be back on the right path. I admire your emphasis on community action, and on citizen engagement. It gives me great hope to think that soon we will have a president who treats the American people as citizens whose input is vital to the governing process, not as subjects who should sit down and shut up while their rulers make the decisions.

My vision for America is that it may someday become a true democracy. We the people must be able to hold our leaders accountable for what they do in our name. We must put an end to “signing statements” declaring the President above the law. We must demand hearings for those who have committed political abuses, and trials for those who have committed crimes. We must make it possible for every child to be educated in civics, history, science, and critical thinking so that they are equipped to participate in self-government.

My hope for America is that some day the equality and dignity of all human beings will be acknowledged and protected. We must reject violence as a solution to our problems. Our culture is too quick to embrace the violence of war as a solution to foreign policy disputes, the violence of torture as a solution to terrorism, the violence of the death penalty and out-of-control prisons as a solution to crime, the violence of abortion as a solution to unplanned pregnancy. We humans have been gifted, whether by nature or by God, with minds that let us imagine more constructive solutions. If we are to call ourselves a civilized people, we must use them.

Sir, I don’t expect you to lead us to that place of equality and nonviolence. It’s our job as citizens to educate ourselves and each other, and to demand change from our representatives. What I hope you will do is uphold the principles of democratic governance, so that we can get there ourselves.